PyWeek - Pipeline - feedback

I know it's very incomplete, but I still had a fun time playing this! Something about building a network and watching stuff flow from one box to the next is very engaging. Sure, an ending would have been nice, but I think the biggest way to improve would be with the controls. My immediate suggestions would be to find some other way to surface new devices rather than have to scroll for them, maybe with a menu on the left, and let me reposition or destroy devices I've set up. Also I don't see why I had to use keys. It seems like I could have accomplished everything with left-click. I appreciate being able to scroll and zoom, that helped a lot once I realized I was running out of room.

The game mechanic has potential, but I didn't enjoy it too much here. There isn't really any challenge - it's effectively just a clicker in that clicking and patience is all you need to progress.

Production-wise there's not a lot to look at, although from the video, clearly you have a sophisticated engine behind it (I'd like to know more about that). I did notice the game seemed to become very slow when I had more than a few boxes.

Looks interesting but very inconvenient. Unfinished. Slow.

no sound and I could not really figure out what I was doing. Pressing 'w' and 'p' and move the things around with 's' and 'm' but not sure what I was doing.

I tried python 2 but it didn't work. Then I tried python 3 just in case and it still didn't work.

Here is the output when I ran the game using python 2.

2018-11-09 19:15:52.377 Python[31827:11855097] ApplePersistenceIgnoreState: Existing state will not be touched. New state will be written to (null)
2018-11-09 19:15:52.716 Python[31827:11855097] -[SDLApplication _setup:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fbdcfe8da80
2018-11-09 19:15:52.716 Python[31827:11855097] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[SDLApplication _setup:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fbdcfe8da80'
*** First throw call stack:
(
0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff4546943d __exceptionPreprocess + 256
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff71376720 objc_exception_throw + 48
2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff454e6255 -[NSObject(NSObject) __retain_OA] + 0
3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff45408ad0 ___forwarding___ + 1486
4 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff45408478 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 120
5 Tk 0x00007fff51769777 TkpInit + 467
6 Tk 0x00007fff516e82ce Tk_Init + 1697
7 _tkinter.so 0x000000010ce28bc8 Tcl_AppInit + 84
8 _tkinter.so 0x000000010ce28593 init_tkinter + 20774
9 Python 0x00007fff4f7e3bf0 PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 1102
10 Python 0x00007fff4f7e3588 PyEval_EvalCodeEx + 1540
11 Python 0x00007fff4f78ad88 PyFunction_SetClosure + 797
12 Python 0x00007fff4f76d9a7 PyObject_Call + 97
13 Python 0x00007fff4f778053 PyMethod_New + 1176
14 Python 0x00007fff4f76d9a7 PyObject_Call + 97
15 Python 0x00007fff4f7e9158 PyEval_CallObjectWithKeywords + 159
16 Python 0x00007fff4f776333 PyInstance_New + 123
17 Python 0x00007fff4f76d9a7 PyObject_Call + 97
18 Python 0x00007fff4f7e3bdd PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 1083
19 Python 0x00007fff4f7e3588 PyEval_EvalCodeEx + 1540
20 Python 0x00007fff4f7e2f7e PyEval_EvalCode + 32
21 Python 0x00007fff4f802069 PyParser_ASTFromFile + 287
22 Python 0x00007fff4f802110 PyRun_FileExFlags + 130
23 Python 0x00007fff4f801c8f PyRun_SimpleFileExFlags + 719
24 Python 0x00007fff4f8136fc Py_Main + 3176
25 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff72444085 start + 1
26 ??? 0x0000000000000002 0x0 + 2
)
libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
Abort trap: 6

Game crashed python on launch: running on python 2.7.15, pygame 1.9.3, osx 10.12. This was the crash message:

Python[17524:628428] -[SDLApplication _setup:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fd2de8cadd0
Python[17524:628428] *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[SDLApplication _setup:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7fd2de8cadd0'
*** First throw call stack:
(
0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff7c9f2e7b __exceptionPreprocess + 171
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff915dccad objc_exception_throw + 48
2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff7ca74cb4 -[NSObject(NSObject) doesNotRecognizeSelector:] + 132
3 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff7c964fb5 ___forwarding___ + 1061
4 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff7c964b08 _CF_forwarding_prep_0 + 120
5 Tk 0x000000010a1465e6 TkpInit + 471
6 Tk 0x000000010a0c1c8d Tk_Init + 1794
7 _tkinter.so 0x0000000109f9fbc0 Tcl_AppInit + 84
8 _tkinter.so 0x0000000109f9f58b Tkinter_Create + 1063
9 Python 0x0000000108ea40ce PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 1994
10 Python 0x0000000108ea3712 PyEval_EvalCodeEx + 1551
11 Python 0x0000000108e49e1a function_call + 327
12 Python 0x0000000108e2c2bd PyObject_Call + 97
13 Python 0x0000000108e36ba6 instancemethod_call + 163
14 Python 0x0000000108e2c2bd PyObject_Call + 97
15 Python 0x0000000108ea9352 PyEval_CallObjectWithKeywords + 159
16 Python 0x0000000108e34e82 PyInstance_New + 123
17 Python 0x0000000108e2c2bd PyObject_Call + 97
18 Python 0x0000000108ea40b7 PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 1971
19 Python 0x0000000108ea3712 PyEval_EvalCodeEx + 1551
20 Python 0x0000000108ea30fd PyEval_EvalCode + 32
21 Python 0x0000000108ec1e6f run_mod + 49
22 Python 0x0000000108ec1f16 PyRun_FileExFlags + 130
23 Python 0x0000000108ec1a98 PyRun_SimpleFileExFlags + 706
24 Python 0x0000000108ed2d06 Py_Main + 3030
25 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff91ec0255 start + 1
)
libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException
Abort trap: 6

Complains about syntax errors. Python 2????

Interesting concept. I like the node based pipeline approach, with inputs and outputs and resources flowing between them, reminded me of some visual programming tools. But I was missing the challenge or the goal of constructing that pipeline.

Firstly, a mention that my middle mouse button has recently broken so not getting the full experience.

The visual style is nicely minimalist - it gives the impression of a retro computer terminal.

I really like the "extended mouse" interactivity - hovering and using a contextual button to control the action. Responsiveness makes this a really nice feature.

The narrative instruction has a cool sci-fi tone which sets a scene but also reveals rather little - keeping interest.

The main issue I had was the game didn't go very far (possible because my mouse wheel broke so not counting that as a negative) and lacks much of a reward mechanism. The pipeline mechanic is a nice touch to the gameplay allowing for creativity.

It's a really interesting and inspired start, but it lacks content and reward for the gameplay. Lacking visual appeal from any graphics, quite a lot of files and manual save resetting process let Pipeline down a tad.

I think a really cool game could come out of this with a bit more work!

Does not work. Abort trap: 6.

Hmm, interesting concept. Unfortunately, the presentation is quite unclear overall, and it seems to be a bit buggy. Shame; it looks like there is something here, but I just can't manage to figure out how enjoy this, so I have to be fair to the other entries that put together a smoother game experience. But, great job on finishing PyWeek, and I have confidence that your next entry will go better.

At first I wasn't sure what to do. After a bit of experimentation and reading the readme I managed to place a few pipes, connect them up and get something flowing through them. A few times pipes just disappeared - this may have been intentional, but I wouldn't know why

In all, a promising start but a bit too confusing for me

I really liked the concept of this game, and I wanted to play it to its end, however I encountered a few problems:

1. The whole game ran at about 10 FPS, which was not nice, but excusable, since it may run better on faster machines than mine.

2. If I tried to delete most objects with s-click then x, I got this error (https://pastebin.com/fD1x9VZ2). [It's quite long so I didn't want to paste it here.]

3. The toolbar is a bit awkward to use, as you have to scroll through lots of empty space.

4. It's not clear exactly what you are trying to do. What are Si, ShSi, J and ShJ? I assume this is cleared up later on in the game, but sadly I could not reach that part. Also, it would be nice to have some clear instructions in game.

I think this game has potential, but quite a few rough edges. If these were ironed out, this game could be great!

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here. After some clicking (as per the tutorial) the instructions/plot text vanished and I have no idea what to do or what the goal is. Graphics are minimalistic or non existent, there are no sounds, no music, no setup, configuration, and I had to use task manager to exit the game.

I really like this kind of game some sort of clicker with automation and a story.
The feeling is nice but tooooooo short =D I wanted to play more =3 or maybe I missed something ^^'
Some elements seem a bit out of the screen (like the void -> si) , it took me some times to get it. And pressing another button instead of the intended one made the game crash for me =P
Good job overall I liked the idea, would like to see more !